Where are the men? Nursing profession fails to attract males
Posted 28 May 2024 - 01:00
Report reveals fewer young people interested in a nursing career and calls for dismantling of gender stereotypes, with only 11% of UK registrants being male
Stigma, stereotypes and ‘backlash on social media’ are preventing young men from going into nursing, according to a new report and senior nurse, with the image of the profession still being predominately female.
One of the main reasons cited for the relatively low interest in nursing is that it ‘mainly attracts girls’, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The organisation found that fewer young people overall in OECD countries were interested in a future career in nursing, with the percentage falling from 2.3% in 2018 to 2.1% in 2022.
The OECD said there needs to be a focus on ‘increasing male students and dismantling the long-standing stereotype that views nursing as a low-status, poorly paid profession suited primarily for women’.
Untapped pool of nurses who do not consider the profession is for them
David Gwinnell, a senior emergency department staff nurse and chair of the Men Into Nursing Together group, agreed that there is a huge untapped pool of potential nurses who do not consider the profession is for them.
‘The image of nursing is still very much female,’ he said. ‘Before COVID-19 we were doing a lot of work going into schools and trying to educate people that nursing is for all genders, not just females.
‘We did get a fair bit of backlash from a group of women on social media who said that this is sexist and that we were trying to undervalue everything that women had done in nursing. That wasn’t the case at all – we simply want to encourage and increase the amount of people that wanted to become nurses.
‘The stigmas are still there. Representation of all types of nurses is really important, both in the media and in student recruitment.’
Male uptake of nursing in UK far behind that of other countries
The UK has one of the lowest rates of interest in the nursing profession among young males, and they make up just 3.2% of all 15-year-old school pupils interested in becoming a nurse. By comparison, the figure is 18.9% in Italy and 16.1% in Spain.
Nursing and Midwifery Council data show that 11% of registrants in the UK are male and 89% are female. The figure for males has been consistent for a decade and has grown just 4% since the 1950s.
By comparison, in former French-colonised countries in Africa such as Chad, Cameroon and Niger, male nurses outnumber female nurses.
Female image of nursing ‘deeply ingrained in our society’
RCN Institute of Nursing Excellence associate director of education Dave Clarke said: ‘The issue of the number of men in the nursing profession is decades old. It is a difficult issue to address as it’s multi-faceted and deeply ingrained in our society that several professions, including nursing, are feminised.
‘With decreasing applications to nursing courses across the four UK countries, we need to address many issues nurses and nursing students face – these include pay, working conditions and public perceptions of what we do.’
In other news